The communication industry, including telephonic, IP-based digital and other networks, has seen the type and number of network elements multiply in recent years. Unfortunately, manufacturers of network equipment such as routers, switches, database elements and others have not made it a priority to create flexible configuration tools.
Thus, a manufacturer of data, telephone or hybrid telephone/data switches might provide an independent software package to select and configure networks composed of its own products. However, networks built from components made by diverse manufacturers have had no universal tool for the selection, testing and integration of overall network architectures. The costs of network acquisition and maintenance, as well as personnel training, are therefore increased. Other problems exist.